NSW Trauma Registry System

Objective

The principal objective of the NSW Trauma Registry is to encourage higher standards of both injury prevention and patient care by:

Monitoring traumatic injury incidence and causation;

Identifying objective and verifiable data on treatment, outcomes and quality of care;

Identifying system requirements; and

Providing annual reporting

History of the NSW Trauma Registry system

The NSW Trauma Registry was established by NSW ITIM in 2002, and by 2008 held approximately 18,000 records of serious to critically injured people. The registry was purpose built and managed and maintained by NSW ITIM staff, who manually entered records submitted by trauma services staff on behalf of NSW hospital trauma registries.

Due to growing demands for trauma data for many purposes, including trauma research and monitoring of the trauma system, it became increasingly necessary to standardise and improve the collection of data across NSW. It was also apparent that NSW ITIM should prepare for an extension of the trauma data collection to more hospitals, and to prepare for an enlarged NSW trauma minimum data set.

Consequently, NSW ITIM commenced the NSW Trauma Registry project in 2006, with the goal of providing NSW trauma hospitals with a single standardised trauma registry which would accommodate the current and anticipated trauma data requirements in NSW.

In 2009 the NSW Collector Trauma Registry was launched, marking completion of the initial stage of this extensive project. Over the next year other components of the system were put in place, establishing a comprehensive state-wide trauma registry and reporting solution accessible at any trauma hospital in NSW.

NSW Collector Trauma Registry

The NSW Collector Trauma Registry is the core component of the NSW trauma registry system. It was launched in January 2009, marking completion of the first milestone of the NSW trauma registry project.

The registry incorporates state and federal health data standards, and enables trauma services to directly enter and manage data mandated for the NSW Trauma Minimum Data set. Together with reporting tools (described below) the registry provides a comprehensive and supported trauma data collection and reporting system for hospital trauma registries in NSW.

NSW Collector was developed by Digital Innovation USA (DI) according to specifications provided by the NSW Institute of Trauma and Injury Management. Based on ‘Collector’, DI’s trauma registry solution, NSW Collector implements numerous standards and modifications specifically required by NSW ITIM and trauma services in NSW, including:

Australia and NSW specific data domains

Australia data formats

ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS data domains

AIS 2005 Update 20081

NSW Hospital facilities

Other modifications reflecting specific aspects of the NSW trauma system

The NSW Collector Trauma Registry was designed as a comprehensive trauma registry that would meet the needs of NSW ITIM as well as the more extensive data requirements of individual hospital trauma registries. Indeed, while NSW ITIM currently mandates a small number of data elements (see Trauma data requirements in NSW), the registry is capable of recording hundreds of additional data points to support the trauma services.

Hosted securely within NSW Health, the registry is available to authorised users within the NSW Health network. Network access and access to the registry is strictly monitored, controlled and managed by Health Support Services in partnership with NSW ITIM. Additional security ensures trauma services staff may only view and edit data for their own facility.

Other components of the NSW Trauma Registry system

The NSW ITIM Trauma Registry system is the set of applications that includes the NSW Collector Trauma Registry and associated reporting tools and modules.

Remote Refresh Report Writer

The Remote Refresh Report Writer is a data reporting application that enables trauma registry staff to interrogate data and produce datasheets, reports and charts. Data available is limited to the trauma service's own data set.

Data used in the Remote Refresh Report Writer is loaded from the NSW Collector Trauma Registry by registry staff at each trauma service on a scheduled basis.

NSW Collector Web Portal

The NSW Collector Web Portal is a secure web site available only to trauma services staff within NSW Health.